Varga chakra

A varga chakra (divisional chart) is a chart built from a finer cut of the zodiac than the rasi chart (rasi chakra). Each rasi (sign) is split into equal parts, every part is given a rasi of its own, and each point goes into the rasi of the part it falls in. hora does not calculate varga chakras yet; the book teaches how in chapter 6.

Parts of a rasi

A rasi spans 30°. Split into n equal parts, each part spans 30° divided by n: into 3 parts, each spans 10°; into 9 parts, each spans 3°20′.

Each part is then assigned to a rasi, which need not be the rasi it was cut from. Which part goes to which rasi is a rule of its own for each varga chakra; chapter 6 gives those rules, and names each varga chakra D-n after its number of parts. Where a point lands in a varga chakra so depends on two things: how far into its rasi it stands, which picks the part, and the varga chakra's rule, which picks the rasi of that part. This holds for every point of a chart: each graha (planet), the lagna (ascendant), and the upagrahas (sub-planets) and special lagnas (special ascendants) that hora does not calculate yet.

A chart of its own

A graha can be in one rasi in the rasi chart and in another in a varga chakra, and so can the lagna. A varga chakra is therefore read as a chart in its own right: its bhavas (houses) are counted afresh from where the lagna falls in it, and the grahas are judged by where they stand in it.

Each varga chakra is read for one area of life; chapter 6 says which area each one shows.

The four pillars

Everything in Jyotish (Vedic astrology) is built from four ideas, and this page completes them. The grahas are what moves; the rasis are where on the zodiac each graha stands; the bhavas are where it stands as seen from a reference point of the chart; and the varga chakras look at all of that again, rasi by rasi, at a finer grain.

In the chart

hora draws only the rasi chart so far, so nothing on the chart page names a varga chakra yet.

Next come the nakshatras: the zodiac cut into twenty-seven parts instead of twelve.

Book reference: P.V.R. Narasimha Rao, Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, chapter 1, § 1.3.5. Where to get the book